Aregbesola to recapture Abolongo inmate escapees
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has promised to recapture all inmates who escaped from the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) Custodial Centre, Abolongo, Oyo State. A statement by the Media Adviser to the Minister, Mr Sola Fasure, stated that Aregbesola made the promise while on an inspection visit to the facility on Sunday in Oyo.
The minister assured Nigerians that the Federal Government would pursue not just those who attacked the facility, but those who escaped lawful custody. He commended officers of the service and other members of sister security agencies who have provided perimeter security for the facility for fighting gallantly and holding the fort before the attackers were able to gain access to the awaiting trial section of the facility. The attack was unconscionable.
The minister added that those who have escaped are already being pursued. Some have been re-arrested, many more will still be captured. Aregbesola, however, noted that 446 out of 907 escapees had already been re-captured, while 69 remained in the facility. The last count recorded that 446 of the escapees have been re-captured, leaving 392 still at large.
He assured Nigerians that the service has an updated database of the escapees which include their biometrics. The database would be shared with all security agencies in the country, including the Interpol, so those who escaped our re-capture efforts can be nabbed. He stressed that those on the run, have nowhere to hide. They can run, but can't hide. They will be fished out.
They published the details of those who escaped in the mass media so that public can assist in the effort. On the effort to rebuild the damaged portions of the facility, the minister said that he had directed the NCoS to immediately commence remediation work. He hope to make the facility better secured and more habitable for the inmates.
Also, the Controller-General of NCoS, Haliru Nababa, noted that so far, the service had successfully prevented internal jailbreaks in all its facilities. The NCoS has so far prevented internal jailbreaks in the country. What reoccurring in recent times are external attacks on our facilities. They have been retraining our officers not just on securing those in lawful custody, but preventing external attacks.
He stated that they are collaborating with other security agencies in the country to make such attacks are near impossible and where they do occur, the attackers will not live to regret it. On the instruction given by the minister to immediately commence remediation work on the facility, Nababa said that work had begun in earnest already.
Nababa added that workers are already on site fixing damaged doors, broken windows and mounting walls. Before the end of the day, work would have been completed. Supreme reports that a large number of heavily armed gunmen attacked the Abolongo Custodial Centre at about 10 p.m. on Saturday, in which several inmates escaped.
